FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 1, 2022
CONTACT: Jordan Damron, [email protected]
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Gov. Justice pleads with Senate to give our hard working West Virginians a tax break
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State nets $141.8 million surplus for August 2022; sets another new record for total severance tax collections
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CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice announced today that West Virginia’s General Revenue collections for August 2022 of $507 million were $141.8 million above estimates and 32.2% ahead of prior year receipts.
“I once again plead with the State Senate to give our hard working West Virginians an immediate and permanent 10% cut of the personal income tax,” Gov Justice said. “These surpluses are the taxpayers' dollars, and should be returned to them in the most efficient and fastest way possible.
“Proper minding of the state’s finances has led to this incredible opportunity for our taxpayers and the entire state of West Virginia. Without question, the elimination of the personal income tax would drive growth and prosperity to our state for decades to come.
“The House of Delegates stands right with me, but I need you to contact your state senator and ask for their help in delivering my immediate tax break that will put money directly in the pockets of hard working West Virginians who are battling inflation, not in the pockets of large corporations, like other plans that have been proposed."
Coming off a $1.308 billion surplus in Fiscal Year 2022 – the greatest year of revenue collections in state history – and another all-time record for severance tax collections in July – August saw severance tax collections total another all-time record for the month of $129.2 million compared to $45.9 million in August of last year, an $83.3 million increase.
Year-to-date general revenue fund severance tax collections of $183.8 million were 273% ahead of last year and $157.4 million above estimate.
Personal Income Tax collections totaled $186 million, exceeding the estimate by nearly $15.2 million and prior year receipts by 20.4%. Year-to-date collections totaled $347.2 million, an amount that was $29.4 million above estimate and 17.2% ahead of prior year receipts.
Consumer Sales Tax collections of nearly $150.9 million were $20.1 million above estimate in August and 6.9% ahead of prior August collections. Cumulative collections of nearly $247.2 million are $30.5 million above estimate and 7.0% ahead of last year.
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Under Gov. Justice’s leadership, West Virginia continues to enjoy an unprecedented era of success and prosperity.
After inheriting a $500 million budget deficit, Gov. Justice has led the state to record-setting budget surpluses by using his lifelong experience as a businessman to make West Virginia a more business-friendly state and by standing behind the energy industry. During the historic Fiscal Year 2022, West Virginia’s cumulative revenue collections finished at $1.308 billion over estimate – shattering the all-time record for biggest single-year revenue surplus in state history. At the same time, West Virginia has achieved record-low unemployment rates.
West Virginia is finally competing on the world stage and recruiting world-class companies to our state as shown in several major economic development announcements this year. Nucor Corporation announced that they selected Mason County as the location for a state-of-the-art sheet steel mill. This record investment will exceed $2.7 billion, making it the largest in West Virginia history, as well as the largest single investment Nucor has ever made. GreenPower Motor Company announced an agreement with the state to manufacture zero-emission, all-electric school buses in South Charleston, bringing hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact to West Virginia. Owens & Minor, a Fortune 500 company that provides medical supplies, is going to expand on a deal they previously had with WVU Medicine and create over 125 jobs at a healthcare products preparedness and supply center in Morgantown. Omnis Building Technologies will build a $40 million, 150,000-square-foot facility in Bluefield to manufacture housing materials that will revolutionize the future of residential construction, creating 150-300 jobs in the process. Klöckner Pentaplast has announced a multimillion-dollar expansion of their West Virginia facility. PepsiCo is building a pair of new distribution facilities this year, representing a combined $32.5 million investment, while providing 185 jobs in West Virginia. Veloxint, a manufacturer of nanocrystalline metal alloys, is moving to Touchstone Research Laboratory Ltd. in Triadelphia and is expected to create another 200-300 new jobs over the next four years. Pure Watercraft, the leading direct-to-consumer provider of high-performance electric boats, has executed an agreement with the State of West Virginia to manufacture its electric pontoon boats in Beech Bottom, WV, creating over 100 full-time jobs in the Northern Panhandle region by the end of 2025.
Gov. Justice also announced that West Virginia reached the 2nd-highest export growth rate of any state in the nation for 2021.
Meanwhile, the Governor’s Roads To Prosperity program is the state’s largest-ever investment in road maintenance and improvement; after 50 years of neglecting its roads, the state has committed more than $2 billion dollars to fixing them. Teachers and state employees have received their two largest pay raises ever. Thanks to Gov. Justice, Veterans now live in West Virginia tax-free and senior citizens do not face state taxes on social security. The Governor has also led West Virginia through a once-in-a-century pandemic, protecting the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
People are more excited than ever to be in West Virginia. From April 2010 to July 2019, more than 43,000 people moved out of the state. However, from 2020 through 2021, net migration is up in West Virginia for the first time in decades, with over 2,000 people moving into the state, making West Virginia one of the top states in the entire nation that people are moving into on a percentage basis.
Increased investments in the state’s tourism efforts have visitation and intrigue in West Virginia through the roof. West Virginia was recently named a top-10 travel region in the world to visit by Lonely Planet; the only state to earn this prestigious distinction and the state was also recently selected as one of the Best Places to Go by Condé Nast Traveler. West Virginia was also recently named as one of CBS’s top destinations for family vacations in 2022.
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